The University of California at Riverside is one of the most diverse campuses and is located in one of the most rapidly growing and diverse regions of the United States. Most of the undergraduate students at UCR come from this region. Thus there is a broad base of students from which to select and promote interest in the biomedically-related sciences and a research career in the sciences. The Overall Goal of the MARC U* Program at the University of California Riverside is to increase the number of undergraduate minority students pursuing a Ph.D. degree and a research career in the biomedically-related sciences. The Measurable Objective of the MARC U* Program is to increase the number of minority students going into Ph.D. Programs by up to 100% within three years of graduation. The Overall Institutional Goal is to promote undergraduate research and to produce a large number of women and under-represented minority scientists from UCR. This grant includes a pre-MARC Development Program to increase the eligible pool of Trainees. The goals of the MARC U* Training grant are the following: 1} to increase the pool of minority students eligible to become MARC U* trainees by increasing the fraction of lower division minority science majors at UCR attaining a GPA of 3.0 by 25% or higher in Introductory Biology by 25% from a basis of 16%; 2) increase the number of qualified students applying to the MARC U* Training Program by doubling the number of qualified minority students who apply to the MARC U* Training Program from an average of 7 to at least 14; 3) prepare MARC U* Trainees to become competitive for admission to and success in graduate school by achieving a steady state wherein up to 100% of the Trainees will be competitive for admission into a PhD program as measured by GRE, GPA and research experience; 4} encourage MARC U* Trainees to apply to and graduate from PhD programs by increasing up to 100% MARC U* Trainees who apply to and are accepted into PhD research programs.